A former Google engineer has been charged with stealing commerce secrets and techniques associated to the corporate’s AI know-how and secretly working with two Chinese language corporations.
Linwei Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese language nationwide, was arrested on Wednesday in Newark, California, and faces 4 counts of federal commerce secret theft, every punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
The indictment alleges that Ding, who was employed by Google in 2019 to develop software program for the corporate’s supercomputing knowledge centres, started transferring delicate commerce secrets and techniques and confidential data to his private Google Cloud account in 2021.
“Ding continued periodic uploads till Could 2, 2023, by which period Ding allegedly uploaded greater than 500 distinctive recordsdata containing confidential data,” mentioned the US Division of Justice in a press release.
Prosecutors declare that after stealing the commerce secrets and techniques, Ding was supplied a chief know-how officer place at a startup AI firm in China and took part in investor conferences for that agency. Moreover, Ding is alleged to have based and served as CEO of a China-based startup centered on coaching AI fashions utilizing supercomputing chips.
“At this time’s prices are the newest illustration of the lengths associates of firms primarily based within the Individuals’s Republic of China are prepared to go to steal American innovation,” mentioned FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“The theft of revolutionary know-how and commerce secrets and techniques from American firms can price jobs and have devastating financial and nationwide safety penalties.”
If convicted on all counts, Ding faces a most penalty of 40 years in jail and a advantageous of as much as $1 million.
The case underscores the continuing tensions between the US and China over mental property theft and the race to dominate rising applied sciences like AI.
(Picture by Towfiqu Barbhuiya on Unsplash)
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